History of Liberia

HISTORY OF LIBERIA

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES

IN "

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor

History is past Politics and Politics present History— Freeman

NINTH SERIES

HISTORY OF LIBERIA

BY J. H. T. McPHERSON, PH. D.

Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University, 1889 ; Instructor in History, University of Michigan,
Professor of History and Politics, University of Georgia, 1891.

BALTIMORE

THE JOHNS HOPKINS PBESS

OCTOBER, 1891

COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS.

JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS.
BALTIMORE.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

I. INTRODUCTION 9

II. THE COLONIZATION IDEA 14

III. THE COLONIZATION MOVEMENT 20

IV. MARYLAND IN LIBERIA 31

V. THE KEPUBLIC OF LIBERIA 37

V E. THE HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF COLONIZATION 52

1. As a Southern Movement toward Emancipation 52

2. As a Check to the Slave Trade 55

3. As a Step toward the Civilization of Africa .% 56

4. As a Missionary Effort 58

, 5. As a Refuge to the Negro from the Pressure of Increasing

Competition in America 59

AUTHORITIES... 63

PREFATORY NOTE.

This paper claims to be scarcely more than a brief sketch. It
is an abridgment of a History of Liberia in much greater detail,
presented as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at the Johns Hopkins University. I have devoted the leisure
hours of several years to the accumulation of materials, which I
hope will prove the basis of a larger work in the future.

J. H. T. McP.

UNIVERSITY OP MICHIGAN,
June, 1891.

HISTORY OF LIBERIA.

INTRODUCTION.

There are but few more interesting spots in Africa than
the little corner of the west coast occupied by the Republic of
Liberia. It has been the scene of a series of experiments
absolutely unique in history — experiments from which we are
to derive the knowledge upon which we must rely in the so-
lution of the weighty problems connected with the develop-
ment of a dark continent, and with the civilization of hun-
dreds of millions of the human race. Many questions have
arisen which have not been settled to our complete satisfaction.
Is the Negro capable of receiving and maintaining a superim-
posed civilization ? Fronde declares that "the worst enemies
of the blacks are those who persist in pressing upon them an
equality which nature has denied them. They may attain it
in time if they are fairly treated, but they can attain it only
on condition of going through the discipline and experience
of hundreds of years, through which the white race had to
pass before it was fit for political rights. If they are raised
to a position for which they are unqualified, they can only fall
back into a state of savagery." 1 Upon the truth or error of

letter to Philip A. Bruce, dated London, April 8, 1889.

10 History of Liberia. [488

this view how much depends ! It is shared by many ; some
even believe that the condition of Liberia tends to confirm it,
thinking they discern signs of incipient decay. But the great
preponderance of opinion is on the other side. The weight of
evidence shows the colonists have at the lowest estimate re-
tained the civilization they took with them. Many maintain
that there has been a sensible advance. A recent traveller
describes them as " in mancher Hinsicht schon hypercultivirt."

What might be called a third position is taken by one of
the most prominent writers of the race, E. W. Blyden, the
widely-known President of Liberia College. The radical
difference in race and circumstance must, he thinks, make
African civilization essentially different from European : not
inferior, but different. The culture which the blacks have
acquired, or may attain in further contact with foreign influence,
will be used as a point of departure in future intelligent
development along lines following the characteristics of the
race. This tendency to differentiate he regards as natural and
inevitable ; it ought to be recognized and encouraged in every
way, that the time may be hastened when a great negro civi-
lization, unlike anything we have yet seen, shall prevail in
Africa and play its part in the world's history.

If we make allowance for the errors and mistakes of an
untrained and inexperienced people, the history of Liberia
may be regarded as a demonstration of the capacity of the
race for self-government. t Upon the capability of individuals
is reflected the highest credit. The opportunities for a rounded-
out and fully developed culture afforded by the peculiar con-
ditions of life in the Republic produced a number of men who
deserve unqualified admiration. From the earliest days of
the colony, when Elijah Johnson upheld the courage of the
little band in the midst of hostile swarms of savages, to the
steadfast statesmanship of Russwurm and the stately diplo-
macy of Roberts, there have stood forth individuals of a
quality and calibre that fill with surprise those who hold the
ordinary opinion of the possibilities of the Negro. The trials

489] Introduction. 11

of the Republic have afforded a crucial test in which many
a character has shown true metal. It is not too much to
assert that the very highest type of the race has been the pro-
duct of Liberia.

There are other aspects in which our tropical offspring has
for us a vital interest. Perhaps the most important is the
connection it will have in the future with what is called the
Negro Problem in our own country. There have been and
are thoughtful men who see in colonization the only solution
of its difficulties. Others ridicule the very suggestion. It is
a question into which we do not propose to go. But there is
scarcely any doubt that when the development of Liberia is a
little more advanced, and when communication with her ports
becomes less difficult, and when the population of the United
States grows more dense and presses more upon the limits of
production, there will be a large voluntary migration of
negroes to Africa. And no one will deny that the existence
of a flourishing Republic of the black race just across the At-
lantic will react powerfully upon all questions relating to our
own colored population.

But let us not venture too deeply into this theme. Another
claim of Liberia upon the sympathetic interest of the entire
people, is that it represents our sole attempt at colonial enter-
prise. It is true the movement was largely individnal, but
the effort came from a widespread area of the country ; more-
over, the part played by the National Government was not
only important, but essential. Without its friendly interven-
tion, the plan could never have been carried out. The action
carries with it some responsibility. The United States might
well exercise some protective care, might now and then ex-
tend a helping hand, and let the aggressive Powers of Europe
see that Liberia is not friendless, and that encroachment upon
her territory will not be tolerated.

A few words upon the topography of the country and upon
the aborigines may not be out of place. Liberia is by no
means the dreary waste of sand and swamp that some imagine

12 History of Liberia. [490

it. The view from the sea has been described as one of un-
speakable beauty and grandeur. From the low-lying coast
the land rises in a terraced slope — a succession of hills and
plateaux as far as the eye can reach, all covered with the dense
perennial verdure of the primeval forest. Perhaps the best
authority on the natural features of the country is the zoolo-
gist of the Royal Museum of Leyden, J. Biittikofer, who
has made Liberia several visits and spent several years in its
scientific exploration. The account of his investigations is
most interesting. Small as is the area of the country all kinds
of soil are represented, and corresponding to this variety is a
remarkably rich and varied flora. Amidst this luxuriance
is found an unusually large number of products of commer-
cial value. Cotton, indigo, coffee, pepper, the pineapple, gum
tree, oil palm, and many others grow wild in abundance,
while a little cultivation produces ample crops of rice, corn,
potatoes, yams, arrowroot, ginger, and especially sugar,
tobacco, and a very superior grade of coffee. The fertility of
the soil renders possible the production of almost any crop.

The fauna of the land is scarcely less remarkable in variety
and abundance. The larger animals, including domestic cattle
and horses, do not thrive on the coast, but are plentiful farther
inland. On the Mandingo Plateau, elephants are not uncom-
mon. Buffaloes, leopards, tigers, antelopes, porcupines, the
great ant-eater, divers species of monkeys, and numerous other
animals are found, besides many varieties of birds.

The native Africans inhabiting this territory are probably
more than a million in number, and belong to several different
stocks of somewhat varying characteristics. The most common
type is of medium size, well formed, coal-black in color and
rather good-looking. They are intelligent and easily taught,
but are extremely indolent. Their paganism takes the form
of gross superstition, as seen in their constant use of gree-gree
charms and in their sassa-wood ordeal. Like all the races of
Africa, they are polygamists ; and as the women manage the
farms and do nearly all the work, a man's wealth and import-

491] Introduction. 1 3

ance are often estimated by the number of his wives. Domestic
slavery is universal among them, the great majority of slaves
being obtained by capture in war. These inter-tribal wars
were once almost constant, and their prevention requires the
utmost vigilance of the Liberian authorities.

The natives harvest rice and cassada ; supply the coasting
trader's demand for palm-oil ; raise tobacco ; procure salt by
evaporating sea- water ; engage in hunting and fishing. They
carry on a number of rude industries such as the manufacture
of basket-work, hats, mats, fish-nets ; a crude sort of spinning
and weaving. Iron ore exists in abundance, and the natives
have long known how to smelt it and obtain the metal, from
which they manufacture rude weapons, spurs, bits, stirrups
and kitchen utensils. The cheapness of imported iron ware
has driven out this interesting art on the coast ; but in the in-
terior it is still practised by the Mandingoes, who are also
fine goldsmiths, and manufacture highly ornamented rings.
There are also silversmiths among the Veys, who do good
work. The leather industry, too, has been carried to some
perfection.

With all their disadvantages the natives seem to extract a
good deal of enjoyment out of existence. They are very fond
of singing and dancing to the rude strains of a drum and
harp, and usually prolong their revelries far into the night.

Taken as a whole, the native character has many fine traits ;
and from the civilization and development of this part of her
population, Liberia has much to hope.

II.

THE COLONIZATION IDEA.

It is always a most interesting part of historic inquiry to
search out the very earliest sources, the first feeble germ of the
idea whose development we are investigating. It is difficult
to decide from what one origin can be traced the continuous
development of the idea which resulted in the birth of Li-
beria ; but toward the close of the last century there arose a
number of projects, widely differing in object and detail,
which bore more or less directly upon it, each of which may
be said to have contributed some special feature to the fully
rounded and developed plan.

The earliest of these sprang from the once notorious hot-bed
of slavery — Newport, R. I. As early as J773 the Rev.
Samuel Hopkins, then widely known as a theological writer,
and responsible for the system termed Hopkinsianism, con-
ceived the idea of a missionary effort in Africa, undertaken by
natives properly trained in the United States.1 This at first
did not include the conception of a permanent settlement ; but
on consultation with the Rev. Ezra Styles, afterward President
of Yale, it developed into a definite plan for a colony. The
scheme proved popular ; it was widely advertised by sermons
and circulars both in this and the mother country ; and by
1776 funds had been collected, Negro students placed under
suitable instruction at Princeton, and success seemed almost
assured. The outbreak of the Revolution, however, swept

1 James Ferguson, Life of Hopkins. Hopkins' Circular, 1793.

14

493] The Colonization Idea. 15

away all the thought of carrying Hopkins' cherished enterprise
into execution, and after peace was restored his most strenuous
efforts failed to arouse the old interest. Later thinkers, how-
ever, found suggestion and encouragement in his labors.

The colony founded at Sierra Leone by English philanthro-
pists drew in part its inspiration from Hopkins7 idea, and in
turn suggested later American plans. After the celebrated
decision of Lord Mansfield in the Somerset case (1772), many
slaves escaped to England, where they congregated in the dens
of London in helpless poverty and misery. James Ramsay's
essay on Slavery soon turned public attention to the Negro,
and Dr. Smeathman's letters suggested quite a scheme of
colonization. A movement in behalf of the oppressed race
asserted itself at the University of Cambridge, in which
Clarkson, Wilberforce, Granville Sharp and others took part.
As a result of these efforts some four hundred Negroes and
sixty whites were landed at Sierra Leone in May, 1787.
Disease and disorder were rife, and by 1791 a mere handful
survived. The Sierra Leone Company was then incorporated;
some 1,200 colonists from the Bahamas and Nova Scotia were
taken over, and the settlement in spite of discouraging results
was kept up by frequent reinforcements until 1807, when it
was made a Government colony and naval station. Its growth
in population and commerce has since steadily increased, and
it now numbers some 60,000 persons chiefly concentrated in
the city of Freetown, and all blacks save one or two hundred.

It may be as well to mention here two other sporadic at-
tempts to lead colored colonists to Africa. In 1787 the gifted
and erratic Dr. Wm. Thornton proposed himself to become
the leader of a body of Rhode Island and Massachusetts
colonists to Western Africa ; he appears to have been in com-
munication with Hopkins on the subject a year later, but the
effort fell through for want of funds. The other is much
later. Paul Cuffee, the son of a well-to-do Massachusetts
freedman, had become by his talents and industry a prosperous
merchant and ship-owner. Stimulated by the colony at Sierra

16 History of Liberia. [494

Leone, and longing to secure liberty to his oppressed race, he
determined to transport in his own vessels, and at his own
expense, as many as he could of his colored brethren. Ac-
cordingly, in 1815, he sailed from Boston with about forty,
whom he landed safely at Sierra Leone. He was about to
take over on a second voyage a much larger number, when his
benevolent designs were interrupted by death.

It will be observed that the colonization plans hitherto un-
folded had all been proposed for some missionary or similar
benevolent object, and were to be carried out on a small scale
and by private means. It is now time to consider one pro-
posed from a widely different standpoint. As a political
measure, as a possible remedy for the serious evils arising
from slavery and the contact of races, it is not surprising to
find Thomas Jefferson suggesting a plan of colonization. The
evils of slavery none ever saw more clearly. "The whole
commerce between master and slave/7 he quaintly says, " is a
perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most
unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submis-
sions on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate
it." And again, " With what execration should the statesman
be loaded, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to tram-
ple on the rights of the other, transforms these into despots
and those into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part,
and the amor patriae of the other. ... I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just." * Yet his equally
clear perception of the evils sure to result from emancipation
immediate and unqualified, makes him look to colonization as
the only remedy. " Why not retain and incorporate the blacks
into the state?" he asks, "Deep rooted prejudices entertained
by the whites, ten thousand recollections by the blacks of the
injuries they have sustained ; new provocations ; the real dis-
tinctions which nature has made; and many other circum-
stances, will divide us into parties and produce convulsions
which will probably never end but in the extermination of the

1 Jefferson, Notes on Virginia.

495] The Colonization Idea. 17

one or the other race." After the lapse of a century how
prophetic these words sound ! Jefferson believed then that by
colonization slavery was to be abolished. All slaves born after
a certain date were to be free ; these should remain with their
parents till a given age, after which they should be taught at
public expense agriculture and the useful arts. When full-
grown they were to be "colonized to such a place as the cir-
cumstances of the time should render most proper, sending
them out with arms, implements of the household and handi-
craft arts, pairs of the useful domestic animals, etc. ; to declare
them a free and independent people, and extend to them our
alliance and protection till they have acquired strength. "

Such in outline was Jefferson's contribution to the coloni-
zation idea. Its influence was unquestionably great : the
" Notes on Virginia," privately circulated after 1781, and at
length published in 1787, went through eight editions before
1800, and must have been familiar to nearly all of those con-
cerned in the formation of the Colonization Society.

Clearer still must the details of Jefferson's project have
been in the minds of the members of the Virginia Legislature
in 1800, when, after the outbreak of a dangerous slave con-
spiracy in Richmond, they met in secret session to consult the
common security. The resolution which they reached shows
unmistakably Jefferson's influence. With the delicate if
somewhat obscure periphrasis in which legislation concerning
the Negro was traditionally couched, they enacted : " That
the Governor be requested to correspond with the President
of the United States on the subject of purchasing lands with-
out the limits of this State whither persons obnoxious to the
laws or dangerous to the peace of society may be removed."
An interesting correspondence ensued between Monroe, who
was then Governor, and Jefferson. Both regarded the idea as
something far more important than a mere penal colony.
Monroe, too, saw in it a possible remedy for the evils of

1 Kennedy's Report, p. 160.
2

18 History of Liberia. [496

slavery, and refers to the matter as " one of great delicacy
and importance, involving in a peculiar degree the future
peace, tranquillity, and happiness" of the country. After
much discussion Africa was selected as the only appropriate
site, and approved by another Act of the Legislature. Jef-
ferson lost no time in attempting to secure land for the colony,
but his efforts met with no success. After a discouraging re-
pulse from Sierra Leone, and the failure of several half-
hearted attempts to obtain a footing elsewhere, the whole
matter was allowed to sink into abeyance. For years a pall
of secrecy concealed the scheme from public knowledge.

In the meantime a new private movement toward coloniza-
tion was started at the North. Samuel J. Mills organized at
Williams College, in 1808, for missionary work, an under-
graduate society, which was soon transferred to Andover, and
resulted in the establishment of the American Bible Society
and Board of Foreign Missions. But the topic which en-
grossed Mills' most enthusiastic attention was the Negro. The
desire was to better his condition by founding a colony between
the Ohio and the Lakes ; or later, when this was seen to be
unwise, in Africa. On going to New Jersey to continue his
theological studies, Mills succeeded in interesting the Presby-
terian clergy of that State in his project. Of this body one of
the most prominent members was Dr. Robert Finley. Dr.
Finley succeeded in assembling at Princeton the first meeting
ever called to consider the project of sending Negro colonists
to Africa. Although supported by few save members of the
seminary, Dr. Finley felt encouraged to set out for Washing-
ton in December, 1816, to attempt the formation of a coloni-
zation society.

Earlier in this same year there had been a sudden awakening
of Southern interest in colonization. Toward the end of Feb-
ruary, Gen. Charles Fenton Mercer accidentally had his atten-
tion called to the Secret Journals of the Legislature for the
years 1801-5.1 He had been for six years a member of the

1 A. C. S. Report for 1853, pp. 37-55.

497] The Colonization Idea. 19

House of Delegates, in total ignorance of their existence. He
at once investigated and was rewarded with a full knowledge
of the Resolutions and ensuing correspondence between Mon-
roe and Jefferson. Mercer's enthusiasm was at once aroused,
and he determined to revive the Resolutions at the next meeting
of the Legislature. In the meantime, imputing their previous
failure to the secrecy which had screened them from public
view, he brought the whole project conspicuously into notice.
At the next session of the Legislature, in December, resolu-
tions embodying the substance of the secret enactments were
passed almost unanimously in both houses. Public attention
had been in this way already brought to bear upon the advan-
tages of Colonization when Finley set on foot the formation of
a society in Washington. The interest already awakened and
the indefatigable efforts of Finley and his friend Col. Charles
Marsh, at length succeeded in convening the assembly to
which the Colonization Society owes its existence. It was a
notable gathering. Henry Clay, in the absence of Bushrod
Washington, presided, setting forth in glowing terms the object
and aspirations of the meeting. Finley's brother-in-law, Elias
B. Caldwell was Secretary, and supplied the leading argument,
an elaborate plea, setting forth the expediency of the project
and its practicability in regard to territory, expense, and the
abundance of willing colonists. The wide benevolent objects
to be attained were emphasized. John Randolph of Roanoke,
and Robert Wright of Maryland, dwelt upon the desirability
of removing the turbulent free-negro element and enhancing
the value of property in slaves.1 Resolutions organizing the
Society passed, and committees appointed to draft a Constitu-
tion and present a memorial to Congress. At an adjourned
meeting a week later the constitution was adopted, and on
January 1, 1817, officers were elected.

•

1 The remarks of these gentlemen and others of similar views have sub-
jected the Society to many unjust attacks. Of course many would join such
a movement from mixed motives ; but the guiding principles of the Society
kself have always been distinctly philanthropic.

III.

THE COLONIZATION MOVEMENT.

With commendable energy the newly organized Society set
about the accomplishment of the task before it. Plans were
discussed during the summer, and in November two agents,
Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess, sailed for Africa to
explore the western coast and select a suitable spot. They
were cordially received in England by the officers of the
African Institution, and by Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State
for the Colonies, who provided them with letters to Sierra
Leone. Here they arrived in March, 1818, and were hos-
pitably received, every facility being afforded them to prose-
cute their inquiries, though marked unwillingness to have a
foreign colony established in the vicinity was not concealed.
Their inspection was carried as far south as Sherbro Island,
where they obtained promises from the natives to sell land to
the colonists on their arrival with goods to pay for it. In
May they embarked on the return voyage. Mills died before
reaching home. His colleague made a most favorable report
of the locality selected, though, as the event proved, it was a
most unfortunate one.

After defraying the expenses of this exploration the Society's
treasury was practically empty. It would have been most
difficult to raise the large sum necessary to equip and send
out a body of emigrants; and the whole enterprise would
have languished and perhaps died but for a new impelling
force. Monroe, who ever since his correspondence with Jef-
ferson in 1800, had pondered over "the vast and interesting
20

499] The Colonization Movement. 21

objects" which colonization might accomplish, was now by an
interesting chain of circumstances enabled to render essential
aid.

Though the importation of slaves had been strictly pro-
hibited by the Act of Congress of March 2, 1807, no provision
had been made for the care of the unfortunates smuggled in
in defiance of the Statute. They became subject to the laws
of the State in which they were lauded ; and these laws were
in some cases so devised that it was profitable for the dealer
to land his cargo and incur the penalty. The advertisements
of the sale of such a cargo of " recaptured Africans " by the
State of Georgia drew the attention of the Society and of Gen.
Mercer in particular to this inconsistent and abnormal state of
affairs. His profound indignation shows forth in the Second
Annual Report of the Society, in which the attention of the
public is earnestly drawn to the question ; nor- did he rest
until a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives
designed to do away with the evil. This bill became a law on
March 3, 1819.

Provision was made for a more stringent suppression of the
slave trade : new cruisers were ordered and bounties awarded
for captures; but the clause which proved so important to
the embryo colony was that dealing with the captured cargoes :

" The President of the United States is hereby authorized
to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem
expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond
the limits of the United States, of all such negroes, rnulattoes,
or persons of color as may be so delivered and brought within
their jurisdiction ; and to appoint a proper person or persons
residing upon the coast of Africa as agent or agents for
receiving the negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, delivered
from on board vessels seized in the prosecution of the slave
trade by commanders of the United States armed vessels."
The sum of $100,000 was appropriated for carrying out the
provisions of the Act. President Monroe determined to con-
strue it as broadly as possible in aid of the project of coloniza-

22 History of Liberia. [500

tion. After giving Congress, in his message, December 20,
1818, fair notice of his intention, no objection being made,
he proceeded to appoint two agents, the Rev. Samuel Bacon,
already in the service of the Colonization Society, and John
P. Bankson as assistant, and to charter the ship Elizabeth.
The agents were instructed to settle on the coast of Africa,
with a tacit understanding that the place should be that
selected by the Colonization Society ; they were to provide
accommodations sufficient for three hundred, supplying pro-
visions, clothing, tools, and implements. It is important to
note the essential part taken by the Government in the estab-
lishment of the colony, for this is often said to be purely
the result of private enterprise ; the inference tending to free
the United States from any responsibility for the protection of
its feeble offspring. It is true according to the letter, that the
Government agency was separate from the colony : the agents
were instructed " to exercise no power founded on the prin-
ciple of colonization, or other principle than that of perform-
ing benevolent offices ;" and again, " you are not to connect
your agency with the views or plans of the Colonization So-
ciety, with which, under the law, the Government of the
United States has no concern." Yet as a matter of fact the
agency and colony were practically identical ; and for years
the resources of the Government were employed "to colonize
recaptured Africans, to build homes for them, to furnish them
with farming utensils, to pay instructors to teach them, to
purchase ships for their convenience, to build forts for their
protection, to supply them with arms and munitions of war,
to enlist troops to guard them, and to employ the army and
navy in their defence."1 These words of one unfriendly to
the colony forcibly show the extent to which our national
government was responsible for the experiment.

1 l Report of Amos Kendall, Fourth Auditor, to the Secretary of the Navy,
August, 1830.

501] The Colonization Movement. 23

When the Elizabeth was chartered the Society was notified
that the Government agency was prepared to transport their
first colonists; or more literally "agreed to receive on board
such free blacks recommended by the Society as might be re-
quired for the purpose of the agency." For the expenses of
the expedition $33,000 was placed in the hands of Mr. Bacon.
Dr. Samuel A. Crozier was appointed by the Society as its
agent and representative ; and eighty-six negroes from various
states — thirty-three men, eighteen women, and the rest children,
were embarked. On the 6th of February, 1820, the May-
flower of Liberia weighed anchor in New York harbor, and,
convoyed by the U. S. sloop-of-war Cyane, steered her course
toward the shores of Africa. The pilgrims were kindly treated
by the authorities at Sierra Leone, where they arrived on the
ninth of March ; but on proceeding to Sherbro Island they
found the natives had reconsidered their promise, and refused
to sell them land. While delayed by negotiations the inju-
dicious nature of the site selected was disastrously shown.
The low marshy ground and the bad water quickly bred the
African fever, which soon carried off all the agents and nearly
a fourth of the emigrants. The rest, weakened and disheartened
were soon obliged to seek refuge at Sierra Leone.

In March, 1821, a body of twenty-eight new emigrants
under charge of J. B. Winn and Ephraim Bacon, reached
Freetown in the brig Nautilus. Winn collected as many as he
could of the first company, also the stores sent out with them,
and settled the people in temporary quarters at Fourah Bay,
while Bacon set out to explore the coast anew and secure
suitable territory. An elevated fertile and desirable tract was
at length discovered between 250 and 300 miles S. E. of
Sierra Leone. This was the region of Cape Montserado. It
seemed exactly suited to the purposes of the colonists, but the
natives refused to sell their land for fear of breaking up the
traffic in slaves ; and the agent returned discouraged. Winn
soon died, and Bacon returned to the United States. In No-
vember, Dr. Eli Ayres was sent over as agent, and the U. S.

24 History of Liberia. [502

schooner Alligator, commanded by Lieutenant Stockton, was
ordered to the coast to assist in obtaining a foothold for the
colony. Cape Montserado was again visited ; and the address
and firmness of Lieutenant Stockton accomplished the purchase
of a valuable tract of land.

The cape upon which the settlers proposed to build their
first habitations consists of a narrow peninsula or tongue of
land formed by the Montserado River, which separates it from
the mainland. Just within the mouth of the river lie two
small islands, containing together less than three acres. To
these, the Plymouth of Liberia, the colonists and their goods
were soon transported. But again the fickle natives repented
the bargain, and the settlers were long confined to " Perse-
verance Island/7 as the spot was aptly named. Space forbids
entering on the interesting details of the difficulties they suc-
cessfully encountered. After a number of thrilling experi-
ences the emigrants, on April 25, 1822, formally took posses-
sion of the cape, where they had erected rude houses for them-
selves ; and from this moment we may date the existence of
the colony. Their supplies were by this time sadly reduced ;
the natives were hostile and treacherous ; fever had played
havoc with the colonists in acclimating ; and the incessant
downpour of the rainy season had set in. Dr. Ayres became
thoroughly discouraged, and proposed to lead them back to
Sierra Leone. Then it was that Elijah Johnson, an emigrant
from New York, made himself forever famous in Liberian
history by declaring that he would never desert the home he
had found after two years' weary quest ! His firmness de-
cided the wavering colonists; the agents with a few faint-
hearted ones sailed off to America; but the majority remained
with their heroic Negro leader. The little band, deserted by
their appointed protectors, were soon reduced to the most dire
distress, and must have perished miserably but for the arrival
of unexpected relief. The United States Government had at
last gotten hold of some ten liberated Africans, and had a
chance to make use of the agency established for them at so
great an expense. They were accordingly sent out in the brig

503] The Colonization Movement. 25

Strong under the care of the Rev. Jehudi Ashniun. A quan-
tity of stores and some thirty-seven emigrants sent by the
Colonization Society completed the cargo. Ashmun had re-
ceived no commission as agent for the colony, and expected to
return on the Strong ; under this impression his wife had
accompanied him. But when he found the colonists in so
desperate a situation he nobly determined to remain with them
at any sacrifice. He visited the native chiefs and found them,
under cover of friendly promises, preparing for a deadly
assault on the little colony. There was no recourse but to
prepare for a vigorous defense. Twenty-seven men were
capable of bearing arms ; and one brass and five iron field-
pieces, all dismantled and rusty, formed his main hope.
Ashmun at once set to work, and with daily drills and unre-
mitting labor in clearing away the forest and throwing up
earthworks, succeeded at last in putting the settlement in a
reasonable state of defense. It was no easy task. The fatigu-
ing labor, incessant rains, and scanty food predisposed them
to the dreaded fever. Ashmun himself was prostrated ; his
wife sank and died before his eyes ; and soon there was but
one man in the colony who was not on the sick-list. At
length the long-expected assault was made. Just before day-
break on the llth of November the settlement was approached
by a body of over eight hundred African warriors. Stealthily
following the pickets as they returned a little too early from
their watch, the savages burst upon the colony and with a
rush captured the outworks. A desperate conflict ensued, the
issue of which hung doubtful until the colonists succeeded in
manning their brass field-piece, which was mounted upon a
raised platform, and turning it upon the dense ranks of the
assailants. The effect at such short range was terrible.
" Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living
human flesh. Their fire suddenly terminated. A savage
yell was raised, . . . and the whole host disappeared."1 The

1 Ashmun.

26 History of Liberia. [504

victory had been gained at a cost of four killed and as
many seriously wounded. Ammunition was exhausted ; food
had given out. Another attack, for which the natives were
known to be preparing, could scarcely fail to succeed.
Before it was made, however, an English captain touched at
the cape and generously replenished their stores. On the very
next evening, November 30, the savages were seen gathering
in large numbers on the cape, and toward morning a desperate
attack was made on two sides at once. The lines had been
contracted, however, and all the guns manned, and the well-
directed fire of the artillery again proved too much for native
valor. The savages were repulsed with great loss. The un-
usual sound of a midnight cannonade attracted the Prince
Regent, an English colonial schooner laden with military
stores and having on board the celebrated traveller Captain
Laing, through whose mediation the natives were brought to
agree to a peace most advantageous to the colonists. When
the Prince Regent sailed, Midshipman Gordon, with eleven
British sailors volunteered to remain, to assist the exhausted
colonists and guarantee the truce. His generosity met an ill
requital ; within a month he had fallen victim to the climate
with eight of the brave seamen. Supplies were again running
low, when March brought the welcome arrival of the U. S.
ship Cyane. Captain R. T. Spence at once turned his whole
force to improving the condition of the colonists.' Buildings
were erected, the dismantled colonial schooner was raised and
made sea- worthy, and many invaluable services were rendered,
until at length a severe outbreak of the fever among the crew
compelled the vessel's withdrawal. It was too late, however,
to prevent the loss of forty lives, including the lieutenant,
Richard Dashieil, and the surgeon, Dr. Dix.

On the 24th of May, 1823, the brig Oswego arrived with
sixty-one new emigrants and a liberal supply of stores and
tools, in charge of Dr. Ayres, who, already the representative
of the Society, had now been appointed Government Agent
and Surgeon. One of the first measures of the new agent was

505] The Colonization Movement. 27

to have the town surveyed and lots distributed among the
whole body of colonists. Many of the older settlers found
themselves dispossessed of the holdings improved by their
labor, and the colony was soon in a ferment of excitement and
insurrection. Dr. Ay res, finding his health failing, judiciously
betook himself to the United States.

The arrival of the agent had placed Mr. Ashmun in a false
position of the most mortifying character. It will be remem-
bered that in sympathy for the distress of the colony he had
assumed the position of agent without authority. In the dire
necessity of subsequent events he had been compelled to pur-
chase supplies and ammunition in the Society's name. He
now found himself superseded in authority, his services and
self-sacrifice unappreciated, his drafts l dishonored, his motives
distrusted. Nothing could show more strongly his devotion
and self-abnegation than his action in the present crisis.
Seeing the colony again deserted by the agent and in a state
of discontent and confusion, he forgot his wrongs and remained
at the helm. Order was soon restored but the seeds of insub-
ordination remained. The arrival of 103 emigrants from
Virginia on the Cyrus, in February 1824, added to the diffi-
culty, as the stock of food was so low that the whole colony
had to be put on half rations. This necessary measure was
regarded by the disaffected as an act of tyranny on Ashman's
part ; and when shortly after the complete prostration of his
health compelled him to withdraw to the Cape De Verde
Islands, the malcontents sent home letters charging him with
all sorts of abuse of power, and finally with desertion of his
post ! The Society in consternation applied to Government
for an expedition of investigation, and the Rev. R. R. Gurley,
Secretary of the Society, and an enthusiastic advocate of
colonization was despatched in June on the U. S. schooner
Porpoise. The result of course revealed the probity, integrity

1 These were eventually paid by the United States Government. Ken-
dall's Keport to Secretary of Navy, December, 1830.

28 History of Liberia. [506

and good judgment of Mr. Ashmun; and Gurley became
thenceforth his warmest admirer. As a preventive of future
discontent a Constitution was adopted at Mr. Gurley's sug-
gestion, giving for the first time a definite share in the control
of affairs to the colonists themselves. Gurley brought with
him the name of the colony — Liberia, and of its settlement on
the Cape — Monrovia, which had been adopted by the Society
on the suggestion of Mr. Robert Goodloe Harper of Maryland.
He returned from his successful mission in August leaving
the most cordial relations established throughout the colony.

Gurley's visit seemed to mark the turning of the tide, and
a period of great prosperity now began. Relay after relay
of industrious emigrants arrived ; new land was taken up ;
successful agriculture removed all danger of future failure of
food supply; and a flourishing trade was built up at Mon-
rovia. Friendly relations were formed with the natives, and
their children taken for instruction into colonial families and
schools. New settlements were formed ; churches and schools
appeared ; an efficient militia was organized ; printing presses
set up and hospitals erected. On every side rapid progress
was made. After years of illustrious service Ashmun retired
to his home in New Haven, where he died a few days later,
on August 25, 1828. Under Dr. Richard Randall and Dr.
Mechlin, who successively filled his post, the prosperity of the
colony continued undiminished.

The decade after 1832 is marked by the independent action
of different State colonization societies. At first generally
organized as tributary to the main body, the State societies
now began to form distinct settlements at other points on the
coast. The Maryland Society first started an important set-
tlement at Cape Palmas, of which we shall make a special
study. Bassa Cove was settled by the joint action of the New
York and Pennsylvania Societies ; Greenville, on the Sinou
river, by emigrants from Mississippi ; and the Louisiana
Society engaged in a similar enterprise. The separate inter-
ests of the different settlements at length began in many cases
to engender animosity and bad feeling ; the need of general

507] The Colonization Movement. 29

laws and supervision was everywhere apparent ; and a move-
ment toward a federal union of the colonies was set on foot.
A plan was at length agreed upon by all except Maryland, by
which the colonies were united into the " Commonwealth of
Liberia," whose government was controlled by a Board of
Directors composed of Delegates from the State societies.
This board at its first meeting drew up a plan of government,
and Thomas Buchanan was appointed first Governor of the
Commonwealth, 1837. The advantages of the union were
soon apparent. The more aggressive native tribes with whom
not a little trouble had been experienced, were made to feel
the strength of the union ; and many of the smaller head-men
voluntarily put themselves under the protection of the Gov-
ernment, agreeing to become citizens, with all their subjects,
and submit to its laws. The traffic in slaves all along the
coast was checked, inter-tribal warfare prevented, and trial
by the sassa-wood ordeal abolished wherever colonial in-
fluence extended. Mr. Buchanan was the last white man who
exercised authority in Liberia. On his death the Lieutenant-
Go vernor, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, succeeded him. Roberts,
who afterward became Liberia's most distinguished citizen,
was a Virginia Negro, having been born at Norfolk in 1809,
and brought up near Petersburg. He obtained a rudimentary
education while running a flat-boat on the James and Appo-
mattox Rivers. In 1829 he went with his widowed mother
and younger brothers to Liberia, where he rapidly rose to
wealth and distinction. As Governor he evinced an efficient
statesmanship that promised well for his future career.

Roberts had not long been governor when trouble arose
with the British coast-wise traders that gave rise to a most
interesting crisis. The Liberian Government in regulating
commerce within its jurisdiction had enacted laws imposing
duties on all imported goods. The English traders, accus-
tomed for hundreds of years to unrestricted traffic on this very
coast, were indignant at the presumption of the upstart colony,
and ignored its regulations. The Government protested, but
in vain. And at length the little colonial revenue schooner,

30 History of Liberia. [508

John Seyes, while attempting to enforce the laws at Edina,
was actually seized by the stalwart Britisher and dragged
before the Admiralty Court at Sierra Leone. A long discus-
sion which would be profitless to follow in detail, ensued.
The result was, that the John Seyes was confiscated. The
British Government opened a correspondence with the United
States, in which it was ascertained that Liberia was not in
political dependence upon them. Whereupon the sovereignty
of Liberia was promptly denied, her right to acquire or hold
territory questioned, and she was given to understand that the
operations of British traders would in future be backed by the
British navy.

Evidently if Liberia was to maintain and govern her terri-
tory something must be done. The Colonization Society
while claiming for Liberia the right to exercise sovereign
powers, seems to have had the unacknowledged conviction,
that England's position, however ungenerous, was logically
unassailable. The supreme authority wielded by the Society,
its veto power over legislative action, was undoubtedly incon-
sistent with the idea of a sovereign state. This is clearly
apparent from the fact that though there was pressing neces-
sity for a treaty with England, neither the colony nor the
Society had power to negotiate it. It was accordingly deter-
mined to surrender all control over the colony ; and the
"people of the Commonwealth of Liberia" were "advised "
by the Society " to undertake the whole work of self-govern-
ment ;" to make the necessary amendments to their Consti-
tution, and to declare their full sovereignty to the world.

The suggestion was adopted in Liberia by popular vote,
and a convention met on July 26, 1847, adopted a Declara-
tion of Independence and a new Constitution, closely modelled
on the corresponding documents of the United States. In
September the Constitution was ratified by vote of the people.
Governor Roberts was elected to the office of President, upon
which he entered January 3, 1848. His inaugural address is
one of remarkable interest, fitly proclaiming to the world a
new Republic.

IY.

MARYLAND IN LIBERIA.

The widespread interest awakened by the actual establish-
ment of a permanent colony at Monrovia led to the formation
of a number of State Colonization Societies, at first purely
auxiliary to the central body, but later in some cases inde-
pendent. The foundation of independent settlements at Bassa
Cove and Sinou by the New York, Pennsylvania and Mis-
sissippi Societies, and their union in 1837 into the Common-
wealth, has been considered. A much more important colony
was founded by Maryland at Cape Palmas, which for years
maintained its independence.

In 1831, the Maryland State Colonization Society was
formed. Active interest in the movement had long been felt
in the State, and it scarcely needed the eloquence of Robert
Finley, son of the old champion of colonization, who visited
Baltimore in that year, to awaken enthusiasm. The Society
had hardly been formed when ample funds were provided in
an unexpected way. In August, 1831, a tragic Negro uprising
took place in Virginia, in which some sixty-five white men,
women and children were murdered. The Southampton
Massacres were attributed largely to the instigation of the
troublesome free-Negro element, and the growing sentiment in
favor of emancipation was abruptly checked. The Maryland
Legislature, sharing the general excitement, passed in Decem-
ber a resolution which became law in March, and proved to
the State Society what the Act of March 3, 1819, was to the
main organization. The connection was more explicit. Three

31

32 History of Liberia. [510

members of the Society were to be appointed Commissioners
to remove all free Negroes to Liberia. The sum of $20,000
in the current year, and of $10,000 in each succeeding year,
for a period of twenty years, was devoted to the purpose.
Any free Negro refusing to emigrate was to be summarily
ejected from the State by the sheriff. The wave of feeling
which dictated this monstrous piece of legislation passed away
before any of its harsh provisions were carried out. But the
beneficent portion remained in force. The Society was left in
the enjoyment of the liberal annuity of $10,000.

In October, 1831 , and December, 1832, expeditions were sent
out which landed emigrants at Monrovia. The difficulty of
arriving at an agreement with the parent Society regarding the
rights and status of these people, together with other consider-
ations, led to the adoption of the idea of founding a separate
colony. The plan was adopted largely through the support
of Mr. John H. B. Latrobe, throughout his life one of the most
active and efficient friends of colonization. The motives of
the undertaking were distinctly announced to be the gradual
extirpation of slavery in Maryland, and the spread of civiliza-
tion and Christianity in Africa. Cape Palmas, a bold prom-
ontory marking the point where the coast makes a sharp bend
toward the east, was selected as the new site. Its conspicuous
position makes it one of the best known points on the coast,
and some identify it with the " West Horn " reached by
Hanno, the Carthaginian explorer, twenty-nine days out from
Gades. Dr. James Hall, who had gained experience as phy-
sician in Monrovia, was placed in charge of the expedition,
and the brig Ann, with a small number of emigrants, sailed
from Baltimore November 28, 1833. A firm legal basis was
projected for the new establishment in a Constitution to which
all emigrants were to subscribe. The experience gained by
the older colony was put to good use. Regular courts, militia,
and public schools were provided for from the first.

The vessel touched at Monrovia, gathered as many recruits
as possible from those sent out on the two previous expeditions,

511] Maryland in Liberia. 33

and finally anchored at Cape Palmas on February 11, 1834.
After the usual tedious " palaver " and bargaining, the natives
formally sold the required land. The cape is a promontory
some seventy-five feet in height, separated from the mainland,
except for a narrow, sandy isthmus. A river, navigable for
some miles to small boats, opens opposite it, and forms a safe
harbor. A long, salt-water lake extends to the east, parallel
to the coast. The land is very fertile and well adapted to
farming. Several native villages lie near the cape. From a
well-founded fear of native treachery the colonists laid out
their town on the promontory, upon the summit of which a
brass six-pounder was mounted. Farm lands were laid out
on the mainland, and in a short time the little community
was in a thriving condition. None of the distressing mis-
fortunes encountered by the colony at Monrovia marred the
early history of " Maryland in Liberia."

In 1836 the health of Dr. Hall, whose services to the infant
colony had been invaluable, became so much impaired that
he was obliged to resign. He returned to the United States,
and long rendered the Society efficient service in another
capacity. John B. Russworm, a citizen of Monrovia, and
once editor of the Liberia Herald, was appointed Governor,
and served ably and faithfully until his death in 1851.
Early in his administration a convenient form of paper cur-
rency, receivable at the Society's store, was introduced, and
proved most useful in trade with the natives. In 1841 some
slight difficulties with employes of missions led the Society,
while still retaining control of affairs, to assert by resolution
that the colony was a sovereign State. A revenue law in-
troduced in 1846 soon produced an income of about $1,200.
In this year began the trips of the " Liberia Packet/7 a vessel
maintained by a company formed to trade between Baltimore
and Harper, as the town of the colony was named, in honor
of Robert Goodloe Harper. A certain amount of trade was
guaranteed and other aid given by the Society. In 1847 the
3

34 History of Liberia. [512

justiciary was separated from the executive ; a chief justice
and a system of courts were provided for.

The year 1852 ended the period during which the Society
drew its annual stipend from the State treasury ; but the Gen-
eral Assembly was induced to extend the provisions of the
Act of 1831 for a further period of six years. It may be as
well to note here that in 1858 a further extension was made
for five years, the amount at the same time being reduced to
$5,000 per annum.1 For twenty years the colony had flour-
ished under the care and good management of the Society.
Prosperity now seemed secure, and a spirit of discontent, a
desire to throw off the yoke and assume autonomy began to
prevail. The great success following the assumption of In-
dependence by Liberia in 1847, and the recognition at once
obtained from the leading nations of Europe, naturally
strengthened the feeling. A committee of leading citizens
petitioned the Society to relinquish its authority, at the
same time demanding or begging almost everything else in its
power to bestow. The Society was further asked by its
spoiled fosterling to continue to support schools, provide phy-
sicians and medicine, remit debts, and finally, to grant a
" loan " of money to meet the expenses of government.2

The Board of Managers, though deeming the colony still
unripe for independence, generously determined to grant the
request, as made advisable by force of circumstances. Among
other things it was feared that the better class of colonists
might be attracted toward the independent State of Liberia.
A sort of federal union with that State was suggested, but
found impracticable. A convention met and drafted a Con-
stitution, which was submitted to the Board. An agree-
ment was reached as to the conditions of the transfer of the

1 The outbreak of the Civil War ended the arrangement after the third
payment.

f This singular petition is preserved in Minute Book No. 4 of the M. S.
C. 8., p. 36.

513] Maryland in Liberia. 35

Society's lands, etc. Both were ratified by the people, and in
May, 1854, Wm. A. Prout was elected Governor. Other
officials, senators and representatives, were chosen at the same
time.

The prosperity of the colony continued under the careful
management of Gov. Prout. On his death the Lieutenant-
Go vernor, Wm. S. Dray ton, succeeded to his office. It was
not long before the "rash and imprudent" conduct of this
official precipitated a serious conflict with the natives. An
expedition against them resulted in a demoralizing defeat,
with loss of artillery and twenty-six valuable lives. In con-
sternation an urgent appeal was sent to Monrovia. The
treasury of the Republic was exhausted from the effects of
the uprising of the Sinou river tribes ; but Dr. Hall was
fortunately present, and supplied the Government with a loan
from the funds of the Maryland Society. One hundred
and fifteen Liberian troops, under command of ex-President
Roberts, were soon embarked for Cape Pal mas, and easily
overawed the native chiefs, who agreed to a fair adjustment of
their grievances by treaty, February 26, 1857.

The war was not without important results. The Mary-
land colonists were thoroughly aroused to the weakness of
their isolated position, and determined to have union with
Liberia at any price. It was known that the Republic was
willing to admit Maryland only as a county, on precisely the
same terms as the other three — Montserado, Sinou, and Bassa.
State pride and the views of the Society had hitherto kept
them from such a union ; but now, in the reaction from their
recent terror, a vote of the people called for by Act of the
Legislature was unanimous in favor of " County Annexation •"
and a committee was appointed to arrange matters at once
with Roberts. When he declined to assume any such respon-
sibility, they actually proceeded to dissolve the Government,
and cede all public property forthwith to the Republic of Li-
beria. The interesting document entitled the "Act or Peti-
tion of Annexation," shows the number of colonists to have

36 History of Liberia. [514

been at this time 900 and the aboriginal population about
60,000. The tax on imports produced $1,800 a year. The
State's liabilities were $3,000, with assets estimated at $10,000.

The Liberian Legislature by an Act of April, 1 857, formally
received the colony into the Republic as " Maryland County."
The advantages gained by this change undoubtedly more than
counterbalanced any loss of independence. Though the total
dissolution of the government and surrender of all rights and
property before any negotiation with Liberian authorities had
taken place, seems inconceivably rash statescraft, the wisdom
of the colonists in desiring the union is unquestionable.

At the time of annexation the Maryland Colonization
Society had on hand some $6,000, which was invested, and
the interest devoted to a school at Cape Palmas ; in connec-
tion with this trust its existence is prolonged. Up to the end
of its period of activity it had received and expended nearly
half a million dollars ; the balance sheet of December 31, 1857,
may be of interest :

State Appropriations, $ 930.00

State Colonization Tax, 12,851.00

Colonial Agency, 1,091.85

Columbia Expedition, 248.88

Stock of C. & L. Trading Co., . . 1,250.00

Mdse., 104.62

State Fund, 241,922.16

Contributions, 45,385.74

Profit and Loss, 139,972.31}

J. T. G., Colonial Agent, .... 126.70

443,883.26}

V.

THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.

The History of Liberia from this point on assumes a
peculiar interest. The capacity and capabilities of the Negro
are subjected to a crucial test. He is left fully freed from the
control or influence of an alien race, in possession of a borrowed
civilization, and of a borrowed political system of an advanced
type, dependent on popular intelligence for its very existence.
Can he maintain his position ? Will he make further pro-
gress, developing along lines peculiar to his race and environ-
ment, and spreading a new civilization among the adjacent
tribes ? Or is he to lapse helplessly back into his original
condition — to be absorbed into the dense masses of surround-
ing barbarism ? The question is a vital one. The solution
of weighty problems in large part depends upon the answer.

The form of government was, as has been seen, closely
copied from that of the United States. There is the same
tripartite division — executive, legislative and judicial. The
President is elected every two years, on the first Tuesday in
May. He is commander-in-chief of the army and navy ;
makes treaties with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate,
with whose advice he also appoints all public officers not
otherwise provided for by law.

The legislative authority consists of a Senate of two mem-
bers from each county, elected for four years, and a House of
Representatives holding office for two years; four members
being apportioned to Montserado county, three to Bassa, one
to each other county, with one additional representative for

37

38 History of Liberia. [516

each 10,000 inhabitants. The judicial power was vested in a
Supreme Court with original jurisdiction in all cases affecting
ambassadors and consuls and where the Republic is a party,
and appellate jurisdiction in all other cases; and in subordi-
nate courts to be established by the Legislature.

The majority of the colonists had been long accustomed to
similar institutions in the land of their captivity, and the new
machinery of governmeut was soon running smoothly. Within
the little State peace and prosperity prevailed ; its foreign
relations, on the contrary, were involved in the greatest un-
certainty. It had indeed severed the leading strings which
bound it to its natural protector, and stood forth in the asser-
tion of its independence. But it was wholly unsupported and
unrecognized. iThe dispute with England, whose protege"
on the north looked with jealousy and distrust on Liberian
policy, remained unsettled. The danger was real and press-
ing. Clearly recognition must be sought and an international
footing obtained without delay. President Roberts accord-
ingly determined to go abroad, and as at once chief magistrate
and ambassador appeal to the leading courts of Europe. His
first effort, however, was directed toward obtaining alliance
with the United States. In America his reception was enthu-
siastic. But the delicacy with which the dissension on the
slavery question made it necessary to handle every subject
remotely bearing on that bone of contention, prevented him
from obtaining even the formal recognition of Liberia. Rob-
erts then determined by pleading his country's cause in Eng-
land to arouse compassion in the heart of the power from
which there was most to fear. Here substantial rewards met
his efforts. His prepossessing personality, tact, and statesman-
like qualities won many friends.1 With their support the

xCarl Bitter, who saw him in 1852, speaks of him as "den edlen, hoch-
gebildeten, erfahrenen, weisen, und der Rede sehr kundigen Staatsman
Wir (i. e., Hitter,) haben wiederholt seinen wiirdenvollen Kedeu in den
ersten Kreisen in London beigewohnt."

517] The Republic of Liberia. 39

recognition of Liberia as a sovereign State was soon obtained,
together with a commercial treaty which left nothing to be
desired. In further evidence of kindly sentiment the English
Government presented the young Republic with a trim little
cutter of four guns for coast protection. In France and Bel-
gium similar generous treatment was experienced, and Roberts
was conveyed home in triumph on the British man-of-war
Amazon.

A second visit of Roberts to England, in 1852, four years
later, to adjust disputes with traders who claimed certain
tracts of land, was equally successful, and France, under
Louis Napoleon, presented him with arms and uniforms for
the equipment of the Liberian troops. In 1852 Prussia also
extended her friendship, soon followed by Brazil and the free
Hanse towns. In 1862, the necessity for cautious dealing
with the race question having passed away, the United
States government at last formally recognized the Republic,
and Holland, Sweden, Norway, and Hayti formed treaties in
1864. The consent of Portugal and Denmark in 1865, and
of Austria in 1867, brought Liberia into treaty relations with
nearly all the leading commercial nations.

The internal condition of the Republic during the first
decade was one of unprecedented growth and prosperity. The
Colonization Society in America was in a flourishing condition,
and gained friends on every side. Its receipts for the ten
years were not far short of a million dollars ; and this generous
means permitted the transportation, in the same period, of over
five thousand chosen emigrants. The accession of so large a
force of laborers added a new stimulus to the activity awakened
by self-government. Many new settlements were formed and
all the older ones received an infusion of new strength.
Agriculture, especially the cultivation of the great staples,
rice, coffee, sugar and cotton, made rapid progress; while com-
merce was stimulated by the establishment of regular monthly
lines of steamers between England and various points on the
coast, the first of which was started in 1853. The enterprise

40 History of Liberia. [518

of Holland soon added still other lines. Communication with
America was at the same time facilitated by the regular trips
of a large vessel built for the purpose, the gift to the Society
of Mr. John C. Stevens of Maryland.

At the close of his fourth administration President Roberts
decided to decline reelection. For eight years he had been at
the helm, and had brought the ship of state safely through
her first perilous voyages. And now while the waters seemed
smooth and skies serene he thought it best to intrust her
guidance to other hands. The election took place in May,
1855, amidst scenes of political strife and party violence at
once intense and short-lived. It resulted in the choice of
Stephen A. Benson for President and Beverly P. Yates for
Vice-President. Both were distinctly the product of Liberian
training. Benson was brought over, at the age of six years,
by his parents in 1822, and received his entire education in
the country. He became a successful merchant and entered
political life in the wake of Roberts. As chief magistrate
he showed himself a practical and efficient man, with the
interests of the country at heart.

One of the leading objects of Benson's policy was the im-
provement and elevation of the aborigines ; but his designs
were in part frustrated by the outbreak of a stubborn and ex-
hausting war with the native tribes dwelling about the Sinou
River. Details must be omitted for want of space ; but this
war devastated four settlements and sadly depleted the national
treasury. It was soon afterwards that the Maryland colony at
Cape Pal mas was almost overwhelmed in a similar native
uprising, and united with the Republic, as elsewhere narrated.

A widespread scarcity of provisions followed these wars,
which gave rise to much apprehension. But this eventually
did good in giving new emphasis to the fact that main reli-
ance must be placed upon agriculture rather than trade. The
great resources of Liberia were shown at a National Fair, held
in December, 1858 ; premiums were awarded for the best speci-
mens of coffee, arrow-root, cotton, rice, ginger, potatoes, oxen,

519] The Republic of Liberia. 41

sheep, swine, turkeys, butter, preserves ; cloth and socks of
African cotton ; boots ; soap and candles from palm oil ;
ploughs, hoes and other implements from native iron and
home manufacture ; farina ; chocolate ; planks, shingles, cabi-
net work, and many other products of Liberian agriculture
and industry.

President Benson was reflected without opposition, and
entered upon his second term in January, 1858. A fresh out-
break of the slave trade in this year was followed by a number
of captures by U. S. cruisers, giving rise to the old difficulty
in regard to the disposition of the cargoes. The Act of March
3, 1819, which had long fallen into disuse, was revived, and
a contract made with the Colonization Society to transport
and maintain for a twelvemonth the recaptured Africans
already on the Government's hands. The substitution of
small, swift steamers for the craft of older days so increased
the efficiency of the navy that captures were made in rapid
succession. Within two months 1,432 Africans were landed
at Key West. This state of affairs made further legislation
immediately necessary. Congress, acting upon the suggestion
of a Presidential message, passed an Act amending the Act of
March 3, 1819, which empowered the President to form a
five-years7 contract with " any person or persons, society or
societies," to receive in Africa and care for the unfortunates
rescued from slavers, for the period of one year, and at a price
of $100 per capita. Commanders of cruisers were to be in-
structed to land their captures directly upon the coast of Li-
beria whenever practicable ; immediate measures were to be
taken for removing to Africa those already at Key West ; and
the sum of $250,000 was appropriated to defray expenses.

Three large vessels were at once chartered and stored with
$60,000 worth of supplies ; with the least possible delay the
suffering crowd at Key West was transported to Liberia ; but
only 893 survived the passage. The effect of the new orders
issued to the U. S. slave squadron was soon felt in Liberia.
On August 8, 1860, the Storm King unexpectedly arrived

42 History of Liberia. [520

with a cargo of 619 ; within twenty-four hours the Erie, prize
to the steamer Mohican, followed with 867. Tidings came
that still larger numbers were en route. The effect of this
inundation of liberated barbarians upon the small civilized
community, already surrounded by savage swarms, may be
imagined. The greatest consternation prevailed, and excite-
ment rose to fever heat. President Benson wrote to the Society
that great evils would result unless means were liberally sup-
plied, and entire control of the new arrivals given to the
Liberian Government. The Society accordingly transferred
the execution of its contracts to that government, and placed
at its disposal all money received by their terms. This action
seems to have allayed the worst apprehensions ; and although
over 4,000 recaptured Africans were landed within the space
of two months, no harm seems to have resulted. They made
rapid progress in civilization, becoming assimilated to and in
many cases intermarrying with the colonists; from among
them arose some of the best citizens of the Republic.

President Benson's policy in regard to the natives was
successful in bringing many tribes much more closely under
the influence of the government. A number of steps were
taken toward actively spreading among them the arts of civi-
lized life, improving their methods of agriculture, and check-
ing the evils of intertribal warfare and of superstition. A
poll tax of one dollar a year was levied on each male adult,
to be collected from the chiefs of the several districts ; with a
part of the funds thus raised schools for popular instruction
were to be established throughout the country.

The control and oversight by the central authority of so
many small settlements scattered over a large range of coast
had been greatly facilitated by the small armed cutter presented
in 1848 by the English goverment. This was now found to
be hopelessly out of repair, and was generously replaced by
the donor with another and somewhat larger vessel — the
Quail, an armed schooner of 123 tons. About the same time
the New York Society sent over a small steamer to provide

521] The Republic of Liberia. 43

rapid and regular communication between points along the
coast. In honor of a liberal benefactor it was called the
" Seth Grosvenor."

The third and fourth administrations of Benson passed un-
eventfully, and in January, 1864, Daniel B. Warner, who, the
May previous, had been elected, succeeded him. Warner was
born near Baltimore, in 1812, and emigrated in 1823. The
Civil War in America, with the sanguine hopes it aroused in
the breast of the Negro, caused a rapid falling off in the num-
ber of applicants for transportation to Liberia. The income
of the Society for once exceeded the demand upon it, and
several good investments were made. Liberia, however, was
demanding more cultivators. A supply came from an unex-
pected quarter. Two societies were organized by thrifty
negroes of Barbadoes, to return to Africa and make their home
in the new Republic. Agents were sent out, and sympathy
with their enterprise enlisted. The Liberian Government
issued a proclamation of cordial invitation, and the Legisla-
ture appropriated $4,000 to assist the colonists, increasing in
their case the allotment of land from ten to twenty-five acres for
each family. The Colonization Society devoted $10,000 to
their aid, and despatched an experienced agent to take charge
of the. expedition. A large vessel was chartered, and after a
pleasant voyage of thirty-three days, without the loss of a
single life, 346 emigrants were landed at Monrovia. They
proved a welcome and valuable acquisition, many being me-
chanics and skilled laborers.

After the close of the war, the alluring prospect of " ten
acres and a mule " having failed our freedmen, the Society
again received numerous applications for passage. The M.
C. Stevens had been sold during the period of depression ;
another and larger vessel, the Golconda, was therefore pur-
chased and fitted for an emigrant ship. During her first four
voyages she safely carried over 1,684 persons.

In January, 1867, the semi-centennial of the founding of
the Colonization Society was celebrated in Washington. From

44 History of Liberia. [522

the review of the fifty years' work it appeared that the sum
of $2,558,907 had been expended, exclusive of outlay by
the Maryland Society, and of the large sums expended by the
United States Government. 11,909 emigrants had been sent
over, in 147 vessels ; of these 4,541 were born free, 344 pur-
chased freedom, and 5,957 were emancipated for the purpose
of going to Liberia.1 Besides these, 1,227 had been settled by
the Maryland Society, and 5,722 recaptured Africans had
been sent back by the United States Government.

In January, 1868, James S. Payne entered upon the office
of President. He is another example of Liberian training.
Born in Richmond, Va., in 181 9, he was taken before his tenth
year to Monrovia by his father. One of the leading pur-
poses of his administration was the establishment of closer
intercourse with the great tribes of the interior. These people,
the Mandingoes especially, were much further advanced in
civilization than the coast tribes, who formed a barricade be-
tween them and Liberia, and offered determined opposition to
any attempt to penetrate inland. They feared to lose their
advantageous position as middlemen, and succeeded in keep-
ing anything but the vaguest rumors about the interior from
reaching the colonists. In 1869 Benjamin Anderson, a young
Liberian appointed by the Government, and provided with
liberal financial aid by a wealthy citizen of New York,
accomplished an extremely interesting journey to a point over
200 miles from the coast.2

With great difficulty and the expense of a small fortune
in presents to captious and rapacious chiefs, he succeeded
in making his way from point to point along a course
roughly corresponding to that of the St. Paul's River. The
route lay through dense forests, along paths worn by many
generations of native feet. The ascent was steady ; at 100
miles from the coast the elevation was 1,311 feet, and toward

1 Semi- Centennial Memorial, p. 190.

* B. Anderson, Narrative of a Journey to Musardu.

523] The Republic of Liberia. 45

the end of the journey it rose to 2,257 feet. All along the
way the population was dense, and showed a steady improve-
ment in character, civilization and hospitality as the coast was
left behind. The object of his journey, Musardu, the chief
city of the Western Mandingoes, was at length reached, just
on the edge of the primeval forest. Beyond lies a vast pla-
teau covered with tall grass, showing here and there a solitary
palm, and stretching away to the head waters of the Niger.
The climate is wholesome, the air bracing, and the soil fertile.

The city proved large and populous ; the houses were small
and of a monotonous uniformity, bewilderingly placed without
apparent arrangement. The whole was surrounded with a
huge mud wall, which served not only as a defense against
foes, but to keep out wild beasts, especially elephants, herds of
which were frequently seen near the town. The inhabitants
were strict Mussulmans, and were much further advanced in
civilization than even the most intelligent tribes through
which he had passed. They had an extensive commerce with
the interior, caravans coming from places as distant as Tim-
buctoo. Good horses were plentiful, and there were evidences
of the existence of valuable gold mines. Anderson was re-
ceived with profuse hospitality ; they appeared to be delighted
with the idea of opening trade with Liberia, and promised
gold, ivory and various commodities in exchange for Euro-
pean goods.

Another journey with the same general results was subse-
quently made by another citizen, to Pulaka, about one hun-
dred miles to the southeast of Monrovia. These explorations
are of great interest. They show the belt of coast occupied
by Liberia to be merely the entrance to a high and healthful
interior of great fertility and unlimited resources, over which
the Republic has power to expand indefinitely.

President Payne's successor was Edward James Roye, who
was duly inaugurated January 3, 1870. Born in Newark,
Ohio, in 1815, he had passed through the public schools of
his native town, afterwards attending the college at Athens,

46 History of Liberia. [524

Ohio, and Oberlin. He went to Liberia in 1846, becoming a
prosperous merchant and politician. From 1865 to .1868 he
held the post of Chief Justice. Roye came into office at a
time when a rage for internal improvements possessed the
country ; and with this spirit he was in full sympathy. His
inaugural outlines a bold and ambitious policy. The resources
of the Treasury were entirely inadequate to his extensive pro-
jects, and in an evil moment the Legislature passed an Act
authorizing the negotiation of a loan of $500,000. The loan
was placed in London on terms which netted only £85 per
bond of £100, redeemable at par in 15 years and bearing
interest at 7 per cent. The amount thus offered was further
reduced by the requirement that the first two years' interest
should be paid in advance. From the remainder were deducted
various agents' commissions and fees, until at length the prin-
cipal reached Monrovia sadly reduced in amount, — not over
$200,000. And this soon disappeared without any visible
result. It is an old story ; but in Liberia's case it was particu-
larly disastrous. For with her little revenue, rarely exceeding
$100,000, it soon became impossible to pay the $35,000 yearly
interest on a debt for which she had practically received not
a single advantage. And this accumulating at compound
interest has reached a magnitude absolutely crushing. So
desperate is her financial condition that many believe inevitable
the fate which croaking prophets have long foretold, and
against which she has struggled bravely — absorption by Eng-
land.

Serious as were the more remote effects of the financial
blunder just considered, its immediate consequences brought
upon the country a crisis which might have resulted in civil
war. Great dissatisfaction with the negotiation of the loan
prevailed. The Administration was severely criticised ; seri-
ous accusations were brought against it. While the excite-
ment was at fever heat matters were complicated by an attempt
of the Administration to prolong its hold of office, which pre-
cipitated the threatened outbreak. For some years a Consti-

525] The Republic of Liberia. 47

tutional Amendment had been under consideration, lengthen-
ing the term of President and members of the Legislature.
The measure had been submitted to the people, and twice
voted upon ; but the result was a subject of dispute. Roye
and his party maintained that it had been duly carried and
was a part of the organic law of the land ; and that as a con-
sequence his term did not expire until January, 1874. A
proclamation was issued forbidding the coming biennial elec-
tions to be held.

This action at once aroused violent opposition. A strong
party declared that the amendment had not been carried ; and
in any event could not be construed to apply to the present
incumbent. The proclamation was disregarded ; the polls
opened on the accustomed day ; and the veteran Joseph J.
Roberts, aptly called the epitome of Liberian history, was
elected by large majorities.

Far from being subdued by the decided expression of popu-
lar will Roye and his supporters, with the spirit of the decem-
virs of old, determined to maintain power at any hazard.
Roberts's election was declared illegal, and of no effect.
Throughout the summer the two parties stood at daggers
drawn. At length the increasing strength of the opposition
encouraged the thought of removing the President from office.
The legal method of impeachment seemed far too slow and
uncertain for the temper of the times. An excited conven-
tion was held in Monrovia, October 26, 1871, at which a
"Manifesto" was adopted decreeing his deposition. A few
extracts disclose its character :

" President Roye has, contrary to the Constitution, pro-
claimed himself President for four years, although elected for
only two years.

" He has distributed arms and munitions of war, and has
not ceased his efforts to procure armed men to crush the liberties
of the people.

" He has contracted a foreign loan contrary to the law made
and provided ; and without an act of appropriation by the

48 History of Liberia. [526

Legislature he has with his officers been receiving the proceeds
of that loan.

"Every effort to induce him to desist from his unconsti-
tutional course has been unavailing. Threats and entreaties
have been alike lost upon him. He has turned a deaf ear to
the remonstrances from all the counties of the Republic :

" Therefore, on the 26th day of October in the year of our
Lord 1871, and in the twenty-fifth year of the Independence
of the Republic, the sovereign people of Liberia did by their
resolutions in the city of Monrovia, joined to the resolutions
from the other counties of the Republic, depose President E.
J. Roye from his high office of President of Liberia ; and did
decree that the Government shall be provisionally conducted
by a Chief Executive Committee of three members, and by the
chiefs of Departments until the arrival of the constitutional
officer at the seat of Government."

Before the party of the Administration could recover from
the shock of this action, President Roye and his Secretaries of
State and of the Treasury were arrested and thrown into
prison, — a coup d'&tat which made his opponents undisputed
masters of the situation. The appointed Committee took charge
of affairs ; the excitement died away with a rapidity character-
istic of Liberian politics, and in January, 1872, Roberts was
triumphantly inaugurated. Roye died in prison soon afterward.

A reign of peace and prosperity followed under Roberts,
interrupted toward the end of another term, to which he was
elected, by a severe war with the Grebo tribe near Cape Pal mas.
Limited space will prevent detailed consideration of the later
history of the Republic. Payne was elected to a second term
in 1876. A. W. Gardiner was Chief Executive for three
successive terms, from 1878-1884; and H. R. W. Johnson,
a native born Liberian, son of the famous pioneer Elijah
Johnson, was made President in 1884. The recent years of
the Republic have not brought an increased tide of immigra-
tion, nor any marked progress. The diminished interest in
colonization felt in the United States so crippled the finances

527] The Republic of Liberia. 49

of the Society that few immigrants have been sent in the last
decade. That large numbersof Negroesare willing, even anxious
to go, is shown by the lists of the Society, which has adopted
the policy of aiding only those who can pay a part of their
passage. Several instances of the formation of societies among:

Jr o o

-the Negroes themselves to provide for their own transportation
have occurred. In South Carolina the " Liberia Joint Stock
Steamship Company " was formed, which succeeded in pur-
chasing a vessel and sending over one expedition of 274 emi-
grants. The company was unfortunate and failed financially
before another attempt could be made. In Arkansas a large
secret Society for the same object was formed, several hundred
members of which made their way to New York and pre-
vailed upon the Colonization Society to give them passage.1
The culmination of a dispute with Great Britain over the
north-western boundary of Liberia is perhaps the most inter-
esting topic of her recent history. The boundaries of the
Republic were never very definitely marked out, as her terri-
tory grew by gradual settlement and purchase from native
chiefs. Even to-day there is no hard and fast interior border
line; the country extends back indefinitely from the coast,
new land being taken up as settlement proceeds. In 1849 the
coast line acquired in this way extended from the San Pedro
River on the south-east to Cape Mount, the extreme settlement
on the north-west. Between 1849 and 1852 various pur-
chases were made from the natives covering some fifty miles
more of the north-western seaboard. These purchases ex-
tended to She-Bar, very near Sherbro Island, and were con-
firmed by formal deeds from chiefs of the local tribes. The
conditions of the deeds bound Liberia to establish schools in
the districts ceded, and to guarantee the protection, peace and
safety of the natives. If now a few settlements had been
made in this territory all future trouble would have been
avoided ; but all available energy was needed for intensive

1 A. C. Beports of 1881 and 1882.
4

50 History of Liberia. [528

development, and the newly acquired territory was left un-
colonized. In the course of time English traders established
themselves within this district, who refused to recognize Li-
beria's jurisdiction, and who smuggled in large quantities of
goods in bold defiance of the revenue laws. As early as 1866
correspondence with the British Government was opened ; and'
Liberia's jurisdiction was more than once virtually recognized.
Matters were complicated by the outbreak of disturbances
among the natives, in quelling which the Republic was obliged
to use military force — a course which resulted in the destruc-
tion of property belonging to the English traders. Claims
were at once brought against Liberia through the English
Government to a large aggregate amount. Holding Liberia
liable for damages received in the territory was a practical
admission of her jurisdiction. Nothing was accomplished
until 1871, when Lord Granville proposed to President Roye,
who was then in England, to compromise on the River
Solyma as the limit of the Republic. This is about the mid-
dle of the disputed territory. Roye weakly agreed, and this
agreement is known as the Protocol of 1871. It was not
ratified by the Senate. The tact of President Roberts staved
off the crisis for some time ; but at length the English For-
eign Office demanded a settlement, and a commission of two
from each State and an arbitrator appointed by the President
of the United States met on the ground. Every possible
delay and impediment was resorted to by the British commis-
sioners, who further refused to submit the points disputed to
the umpire. Of course, no agreement was reached.

The situation remained unchanged until 1882. On March
20 four British men-of-war silently entered the harbor, and
Sir A. E. Havelock, Governor of Sierra Leone, came ashore.
President Gardiner was intimidated into acceding to the de-
mand that the boundary should be fixed at the Manna River,
only fifteen miles from Cape Mount. But when this "Draft
Convention," as it was called, came before the Senate for rati-
fication, it was indignantly repudiated. At the next regular

529] The Republic of Liberia. 51

meeting of the Legislature in December, a resolution refusing
to ratify the Draft Convention was passed, and a copy sent to
Havelock. It elicited the reply : —

" Her Majesty's Government cannot in any case recognize
any rights on the part of Liberia to any portions of the terri-
tories in dispute/7 followed by the peremptory announcement
that " Her Majesty's Government consider that they are
relieved from the necessity of delaying any longer to ratify an
agreement made by me with the Gallinas, Solyma, and Manna
River chiefs on the 30th of March, 1882, whereby they ceded
to Her Majesty the coast line of their territories up to the
right bank of the Manna River."

Liberia made a last feeble effort. A " Protest " was drawn
up and sent to the various powers with whom she stood in
treaty relations — of course, without result. The President of
the United States replied at once, counselling acquiescence.
Nothing else was possible. The Senate authorized the Presi-
dent to accept the terms dictated, and the " Draft Convention "
was signed November 11, 1885. On April 26, 1888, Sir
Samuel Rowe visited Monrovia and formally exchanged rati-
fications. Thus once more strength proved triumphant ; Li-
beria's boundary was set at the Manna River, and Sierra
Leone, which had possessed but a few hills and swamps, was
given a valuable coast line.

VI.

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF COLONIZATION.

Colonization has come to be looked upon with unmerited
indifference — with an apathy which its history and achieve-
ments surely do not deserve. To some, perhaps the pres-
ent condition of the Republic seems a discouraging and inade-
quate return for the life and treasure lavished upon it; for
others, hoping for a bloodless and gradual extinction of
slavery, the Civil War carried away the chief element of in-
terest. Others still, who looked for a ready solution of the
Negro Problem in this country, have gradually lost heart in
the face of the increasing millions of the race. And so, some
from one cause, some from another, have lost interest in colo-
nization and in Liberia, until a time has come when few have
more than the vaguest knowledge of these terms. Some-
times the voice of contempt is heard ; but this is always a
proof of ignorance. Liberia stands forth historically as the
embodiment of a number of ideas, efforts, principles, any one
of which ought to secure at the least our respect, if not our
sympathy and enthusiasm.

• 1. As a Southern Movement toward Emancipation.

This thesis will doubtless meet with the most strenuous
opposition ; but a careful and impartial study of the writings
and addresses of those most prominent in the movement will
convince anyone of their profound hope that colonization
would eventually lead to the extinction of slavery in the
52

53 1 ] Historic Significance of Colonization. 53

United States. It must be remembered that at the time of
the formation of the Society the pro-slavery feeling in the South
was by no means so strong as it became in later years, when
the violence of Abolition had fanned it to a white heat. In-
deed, during the whole period before 1832 there seems to have
been a prevailing sentiment in favor of emancipation — at
least throughout Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
But the condition of the free blacks was notoriously such
that the humane master hesitated to doom his slaves to it by
emancipating them. The colonizationist hoped, by offering to
the free Negro an attractive home in Africa, to induce con-
scientious masters everywhere to liberate their slaves, and to
give rise to a growing popular sentiment condemning slavery,
which would in time result in its extinction. Of course there
were those in the Society who would not have subscribed to
this doctrine; on the other hand, many held views much
more radical. But it is the men who formed and guided the
Society, who wielded its influence and secured its success,
whose opinions must be regarded as stamping its policy.

The Constitution of the Society did not touch upon this
subject. It was needless to give unnecessary alarm or offense.
But when in 1833 the Maryland Society adopted its Consti-
tution— a much larger and more explicit one — the attitude
taken is boldly announced :

" Whereas the Maryland State Colonization Society desires
to hasten as far as they can the period when slavery shall
cease to exist in Maryland, and believing that this can best be
done by advocating and assisting the cause of colonization as
the safest, truest and best auxiliary of freedom under existing
circumstances," etc.

It may well be questioned whether such a plan would ever
have succeeded : but it must not too hastily be called chi-
merical. As a practical result it secured the emancipation of
several thousand slaves, many of whom were supplied by former
owners with money for transportation and establishment in
Africa. What further success it might have had was pre-

54 . History of Liberia. [532

vented by the rise of the Abolition Movement. The intense
pro-slavery feeling which this stirred tip in the South caused
the Colonization Society to be regarded with distrust and even
active hostility. It was accused of secretly undermining
slavery and exciting false hopes among the slaves. It was
even said to foment discontent and raise dangerous questions
for sinister purposes, and was subjected to bitter attack as
" disguised Abolitionism."

From the opposite extreme of opinion the Society suffered
assault still more violent. William Lloyd Garrison, in his
intemperate zeal for " immediate emancipation without expa-
triation," could see nothing but duplicity and treachery in the
motives of its adherents. His " Thoughts on Colonization "
hold up the movement to public odium as the sum of all
villainies, and in the columns of the Liberator no insult or
reproach is spared. His wonderful energy and eloquence
brought over to his camp a number of the Society's
friends, and enabled him in his English campaign to
exhibit it in a light so odious that he actually brought
back a protest signed by the most eminent anti-slavery
men of that country.

Assailed on one side and on the other the Society, as we
have seen, serenely pursued its course. Apparently it did not
suffer. But it can scarcely be doubted that its growth and
expansion were seriously checked by the cross-fire to which it
was subjected. Among the negroes themselves prejudices were
industriously disseminated, and everything was done to make
them believe themselves duped and cheated.

From these reasons colonization never reached the propor-
tions hoped for by those who looked to it for the gradual
extinction of slavery. But we should not fail to recognize in
the movement an earnest and noble, if too ambitious, effort
to solve, without violence or bloodshed, a problem only half
disposed of by Lincoln's edict and the Fifteenth Amend-
ment.

533] Historic Significance of Colonization. 55

2. As a Check to the Slave- Trade.

The coast upon which the colony was established had for
several hundred years been one of the chief resorts of the slave
dealers of the western shores of Africa. Their " factories " were
situated at numerous points on both sides of the early settle-
ments. The coast tribes, broken up and demoralized by the
traffic, waged ceaseless wars for the sole purpose of obtaining
for the trader a supply of his commodity. It was their only
means of getting supplies of the products and manufactures of
civilization ; and, as we have seen, when they found the presence
of the newcomers an obstacle to their chief industry, they took
up arms to expel them.

Until the year 1807 there was no restriction whatever on
the traffic, and the proportions which it reached, the horrors
it entailed, are almost incredible. Sir T. F. Buxton estimated
on careful calculations that the trade on the western coast
resulted in a loss to Africa of 500,000 persons annually. At
length the progress of humanity drove England to declare
war on the infamous traffic, and her cruisers plied the length
of the continent to prevent infractions of her decree. At
enormous expense the entire coast was put in a state of
blockade.

The result was mortifying. Instead of disappearing, the
exportation of slaves was found actually to increase, while the
attending horrors were multiplied. Small, swift cutters took
the place of the roomy slave-ships of older days, and the vic-
tims, hurriedly crowded into slave-decks but a few feet high,
suffered ten-fold torments on the middle passage from inade-
quate supplies of food and water.

The colonists, even in their early feebleness, set their face
resolutely against the slave trade : its repression was a cardi-
nal principle. Their first serious wars were waged on its
account. Ashmun risked his life in the destruction of the
factories at New Cesters and elsewhere. The slavers, warned
by many encounters, forsook at first the immediate neighbor-

56 History of Liberia. [534

hood of the settlements, and, as the coast line was gradually
taken up, abandoned at length, after many a struggle, the
entire region. Six hundred miles of the coast was perma-
nently freed from an inhuman and demoralizing traffic that
defied every effort of the British naval force. Nor was this
all. The natives were reconciled by the introduction of a
legitimate commerce which supplied all they had sought from
the sale of human beings.

In still another way did the colony exercise a humane in-
fluence. Among the natives exists a domestic slavery so cruel
and barbarous that the lot of the American plantation Negro
seemed paradise in comparison. Life and limb are held of
such small value that severe mutilation is the penalty of
absurdedly slight transgressions, or is imposed at the arbitrary
displeasure of the master, while more serious offenses are pun-
ished by death in atrocious form : as when the victim is buried
alive with stakes driven through his quivering body.1 The
institution is of course a difficult one to uproot. But among
the natives in- the more thickly settled portions of the country
it has ceased, and is mitigated wherever the influence of the
Government penetrates, while the number of victims is greatly
diminished by the cessation of inter-tribal warfare.

In this way Liberia has proved, from the standpoint of
humanity, pre-eminently successful.

3. As a Step toward the Civilization of Africa.

George Whitefield is said to have declared to Oglethorpe
when lamenting his failure to exclude slavery from Georgia,
that he was making a mistake : the Africans were much better
off as slaves than in their native barbarism, and would receive
a training that would enable them ultimately to return and
civilize the land of their nativity. In this bold idea he antici-
pated one of the leading thoughts of the fathers of coloniza-

1 Anderson's Journey to Musardu.

535] Historic Significance of Colonization. 57

tion, and, perhaps prophesied, a great migration which the
world is yet to see. But to confine ourselves to the present
and the strictly practical — there is to the interior of Liberia,
sweeping away beyond the valley of the Niger, a country
of teeming population and vast resources. That this ter-
ritory be opened to the commerce of the world, and the
blessings of civilization be conferred upon the people, it is
necessary that some impulse of enlightenment come from with-
out. The casual visit of the trader has been proved by expe-
rience to do vastly more harm than good. Vice and demor-
alization have too often followed in his track. The direction
and instruction of European agents accomplish little. The
best efforts of all men of this class have resulted in an un-
equal hand-to-hand fight with the deadly climate, in which
no white man can work and live. Besides, the natives need
more than guidance ; they must have before them the example
of a civilized settlement.

It would be impossible to imagine a more ideal agent for
accomplishing this work than Liberia. True, its slow devel-
opment has prevented it as yet from penetrating to the most
fruitful portion of the interior district ; but so far as it has
gone the work has been wonderful. One after another of the
native chiefs has sought, with his people, admission to the
privileges of citizenship, agreeing to conform to the laws of
the country and abolish inconsistent aboriginal customs. The
schools are full of native children, while large numbers are
distributed in a sort of apprenticeship among Liberian fami-
lies for training in the arts of civilized life. The English
language has become widely known. More remote tribes,
while retaining native customs, have entered into agreements
or treaties to abstain from war, to keep open roads and routes
of commerce, to protect travellers and missionaries and such
Liberians as may settle among them. This is in itself an
advance ; and in addition various forms of knowledge, im-
proved implements and methods of agriculture must enter in
and insensibly raise these tribes to a higher plane.

58 History of Liberia. [536

In reclaiming the natives lies a source of great future power
for Liberia. When immigration from the United States shall
assume such proportions that numbers of interior settlements
can be made which shall be radiating centres of civilization,
the enormous potential energy of native intelligence and labor
will be brought to bear on the development of the country
with marvellous results.

4. As a Missionary Effort.

The attempts of the Christian Church to evangelize the
western districts of Africa constitute one of the saddest and
most discouraging records of history. From the first attempt
of the Roman church in 1481, it has been one continuous
narrative of a futile struggle against disease and death. A
whole army of martyrs has gone bravely to its doom leaving
no trace of its sacrifice save unmarked and forgotten graves.
It has indeed been a bitter experience that has proved this
work can be successfully undertaken only by men of African
blood, for whom the climate has no terrors. And the superi-
ority of an established Christian community to a few isolated
missionary stations requires no demonstration. From the first
the colonists were active in spreading a knowledge of the
Gospel among the natives. Lot Gary, one of the earliest emi-
grants, was an earnest missionary, and besides eificent work
at home he established mission stations at Cape Mount and
elsewhere.

In 1826 four emissaries of the Basle Missionary College
made Monrovia their headquarters, and did some good work ;
but they soon succumbed to the climate. The American
churches of those denominations most largely represented in
Liberia — the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist —
made strenuous eiforts, and sent out a succession of mission-
aries, most of whom fell victims to the fever. Later, after
learning the salutary lesson, they accomplished much through
the organization and direction of the work of Liberian mission-

537] Historic Significance of Colonization. 59

aries. In this way the gospel is safely and successfully prop-
agated among the natives.

A foe more stubborn than paganism is to be met in the
ranks of Islam. There seems to be something in its teachings
which renders the native a ready convert. Its simplicity is
readily understood ; and it sanctions the practices of polygamy
and slave-holding to which he is accustomed. Under the
zealous proselytism of the Mandingoes the Mohammedan faith
has taken a strong hold on the interior, and is spreading
rapidly to the very doors of Liberia. Candor compels the
admission that it brings with it a marked improvement in the
condition and intelligence of the converts. Intemperance —
which in many cases follows in the tracks of the Christian
merchant — disappears. A knowledge of Arabic is soon ac-
quired and the Koran is eagerly read and its principles put in
practice. The whole life of the convert is transformed, and
he becomes in turn zealous in the dissemination of the faith.
The efforts of missionaries alone can never stem this tor-
rent ; if any impression is to be made upon the Mohammedan
tribes it must be by the extension of Christian settlements and
civilization.

5. As a Refuge to the Negro from the Pressure of Increasing
Competition in America.

It would be unnecessary to bring into review the causes
that are operating daily to make the conditions of earning a
living in America more difficult. However much or little
credence we place in the Malthusian theory of the increase of
population, in the doctrine of diminishing returns, or the iron
law of wages, all thinking men are agreed that the country is
already entering upon a new era. The period of expansion,
of the taking up of new territory by the overflowing popula-
tion of the older districts, is practically ended ; future devel-
opment will be intensive, the country will be more thickly
settled, and the sharpness of competition will be immeasurably

60 History of Liberia. [538

increased. The possibility of rising in life will be reduced to
a minimum ; and there will exist a class, as in the older civili-
zations of Europe, who live, and expect to see their children
live, in a subordinate or inferior relation, without the prospect
of anything better.

There may be under this new regime a number of occupa-
tions in which the Negro, by contentedly accepting a subordi-
nate position, may hold his ground. Or the conditions of life
may become so severe that a sharp struggle for existence will
leave in possession the race which shall prove fittest to sur-
vive. To follow the train of thought would lead into all the
unsolved difficulties of the Negro Problem. But surely there
will be some among all the millions of the race who will be-
come dissatisfied with their life here. Some will aspire to
higher things, some will seek merely a field where their labor
will meet an adequate return ; many will be moved by self-
interest, a few by nobler motives. To all these Liberia
eagerly opens her arms. The pressure in America finds an
efficient safety-valve in the colonization of Africa.

With such additions to her strength, the resources of Liberia
will be brought out and developed. Communication with
America will be made easier and cheaper. The toiling masses
left behind will have before them the constant example of
numbers of their race living in comfort and increasing pros-
perity under their own government. Many will become eager
to secure the same advantages, and gradually a migration will
begin that will carry hundreds of thousands from the house
of bondage to the promised land.

It is absurd to declaim about " expatriation " and to declare
such a movement forced and unnatural. The whole course of
history reveals men leaving their homes under pressure of one
cause or another, and striking out into new fields. The western
course of migration has reached its uttermost limit, and the
tide must turn in other directions. One vast and rich conti-
nent remains ; upon it the eyes of the world are fixed. Already
the aggressive Aryan has established himself wherever he can

539] Historic Significance of Colonization. 61

gain a foothold ; but the greater part of the country is for-
ever barred to him by a climate which he cannot subdue.

To whom then can this rich territory offer greater induce-
ments than to the colored people of the United States ? And
what is more natural and rational than that they, when the
population of the country approaches the migration point,
should follow the line of least resistance and turn their steps
to the home of their forefathers.

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